State Taxation of Trust Income – Supreme Court Rejects Aggressive Approach in Kaestner Decision
On June 21, the United States Supreme Court released its highly anticipated decision in North Carolina Department of Revenue v. Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust (the Kaestner decision). In its opinion, the Supreme Court confirmed that a state may not tax income earned by a trust and not distributed out to a beneficiary where the trust’s only connection…
Worried About Losing Your Home to the Costs of Long-Term Care?
When faced with the need for long-term care in a nursing home, many fear losing their home to the exorbitant costs of such care. An individual can qualify for Medicaid coverage for long-term care while owning a home in his or her own name; however, MassHealth (the State Medicaid agency) is usually entitled to receive…
Using Backdoor Roth IRAs to Boost Retirement Savings
For a variety of reasons, taxpayers looking to maximize their retirement savings should consider supplementing employer- based retirement plans with individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”), and especially Roth IRAs. For high-income taxpayers, directly contributing to a Roth IRA may not be possible, but Congress permits such accounts to be funded indirectly through a maneuver commonly called…
Residential Real Estate Values
For developers and property owners alike, making sure your property’s valuation is correctly calculated could save you thousands of dollars in property taxes. Recently, a home in my neighborhood sold for 8% above asking, which was 10% over the property’s valuation. This is not an unusual occurrence. The recent lowering of the federal interest rate…
Mitigating Risks During the Pre-Employment Process – An Employers Primer
Though employers are understandably curious about their prospective employees’ backgrounds, there are numerous federal and state laws that strictly limit which information employers can seek from job applicants, whether through job applications, interviews, and/or background/reference checks. In addition to needing a lawful basis for obtaining certain information from applicants, employers cannot make any employment-related decisions…
Paying Inside Sales Employees on a 100 Percent Commission and/or Draw Basis: An Employer’s Primer to Mitigating Risks
All employers should be aware of the Massachusetts Wage Act. The Wage Act is intended to prevent employers from improperly withholding their employees’ earned wages. As detailed below, even a potentially good faith misunderstanding of the law can result in serious consequences for employers. Importantly, the Wage Act also subjects certain corporate officers (e.g., presidents…
Minimizing Self-Employment Taxes for LLC Members
For over twenty years the limited liability company (LLC) has served as the preferred vehicle for owners to set up new business ventures. The primary reasons are that LLC members are afforded strong protection from personal liability and creditor claims compared with classic corporations, and that members may elect from a number of different tax…
Pushing Back on Proposed ACA Penalties
A significant number of 226-J Letters sent to large employers contain material errors. Don’t cut the IRS a check unless you’re sure the ESRP penalty being proposed is actually due. WHAT IS A 226-J LETTER? As part of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), large employers are required to offer at least 95% of their full-time…
Civil Litigation Basics 5 — On the Front Lines – Trial Begins
This is the fifth article in a series on the basics of the civil litigation process. If you are interested in reading the first four installments, they are available on Fletcher Tilton’s website under the Knowledge Library. Preparing for Trial As discussed in earlier installments, the civil litigation process involves an assertion of claims by…